Anchor bar with a support block

ABSTRACT

A post anchor for anchoring a member to a post is disclosed. The post anchor comprises two segments: a drill end and a second end. The drill end is adapted to drill a hole in a post. A member is anchored to the post by attaching the member to the second end of the post anchor. The drill end is adapted to drill a hole in a post so that the post anchor is arranged in the hole without any axial play. An adhesive may be added to the hole to fill the spaces between the post and the drill end.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a National Phase Entry under §371 of InternationalApplication No. PCT/CH2003/00762, filed Nov. 18, 2003, which in turnclaims the benefit of Swiss Patent Application No. 1978/02, filed Nov.25, 2002.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a post with a post anchor and a method toproduce such a post.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Post anchors are known in the prior art, for example from German PatentDE 36 34 266. In that document, a screw-in threaded rod is adhesivelybonded in a corresponding drillhole in a post, a longitudinal groovebeing provided on the threaded rod so that the glue can accordingly beallowed to enter the drillhole between the threaded rod and the wall ofthe drillhole.

Another post anchor is shown in German Patent DE 199 12 815, in which athreaded spike is provided on a plate which can be placed against theunderside of a post, this threaded spike penetrating the post duringpositioning of the post anchor. Provided on the opposite side of thepost anchor is a sleeve with an internal thread so that an anchor barcan be subsequently screwed in outside of the post.

In all the posts disclosed in the prior art, even when the threaded rodsare glued in, there is a problem in terms of the parallelism of the postanchor and post. This means that the post anchor does not usually haveits center axis lying exactly parallel to the longitudinal axis of thepost. This is an unwanted property of such a system and a disadvantagewhen assembling such post anchor systems on building sites.

In practice, the threaded rod and post of the present invention istherefore not, as in DE 199 12 815, put together on the building site.Instead, this takes place beforehand so that said parallelism can beachieved to the greatest possible degree under industrial productionconditions.

Moreover, the connection of metal anchors in wooden posts usually leavessomething to be desired in terms of the force required to extract theanchors, for example.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a post anchor of the type mentioned inthe beginning which has better parallelism and in which the fixing is,moreover, better secured against twisting.

In one embodiment, the present invention comprises a post anchorcomprising a drill bit end and a second end adapted to be connected to amember wherein the drill bit end is adapted to drill a hole in a postwith substantially no radial play. The drill bit end may be an augerbit, which may have a diameter of between 5 and 18 millimeters. Thetotal length of the post anchor may be between 10 and 100 centimeters.The drill bit end may make up half of the post anchor. The second end ofthe post anchor may be threaded. The post may be made of wood, plastic,or any other material suitable for a post. The cross section of the postmay be square, rectangular, elliptical, or round.

In another embodiment, the present invention comprises a method ofaffixing a post anchor to a post, comprising drilling a hole in the postusing the post anchor as a drill and introducing an adhesive into thehole with the post anchor inserted. The post anchor may also be rotatedcounterclockwise a certain amount, such as one-eighth or one-sixteenthof a turn, before the adhesive is introduced. The hole is preferablydrilled in the center of the post, but may be drilled elsewhere in thepost.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The invention will now be described in more detail with the aid of anexemplary embodiment with reference to FIG. 1. The single drawing showsa partly sectioned perspective view of a post together with an insertedpost entrance.

The reference number 1 is used to denote a post. The post 1 is made ofwood and has a square cross section. Of course, the cross section mayalso be shaped differently, being for example round or elliptical,rectangular or polygonal. The material of the post 1 may also be chosenfrom another material only if these materials are similar to wood withinthe context given below. The similarity in question is in particularimportant for plastic materials.

Said post 1 has a longitudinal axis whose orientation here is indicatedby the arrow 2 running parallel to it. The post 1 can be fastened on awall or floor surface (not shown in the FIGURE) with the aid of a postanchor (anchor 10 for short) according to the invention. The FIGUREshows one moment during the production of the connection between anchor10 and post 1 when the anchor 10 has not yet been fully sunk in the post1.

The anchor 10 is preferably constructed in one piece and as suchcomprises at least two different regions 11 and 12. The first region 11is made up of an auger bit, this region 11 being intended to be set intothe post 1. The second region 12 can be designed according to theparticular application of the post anchor; in particular it may thus bea threaded rod section. This threaded rod section 12, either by itselfor by way of a further section (not shown in the drawing), can bepositively connected to a drive, for example a drilling machine, toenable the auger bit 11 to be driven into the post 1.

The FIGURE shows, in dotted form, the outlines of a drillhole 20 inwhich the auger bit section 11 has already been advanced more thanhalfway. Instead of using an auger bit which allows chips cut out of thepost to be lifted out, use may also be made of any other drill bit whichmakes possible the production of a stress-free bore, in particular inwood, in which there is no radial play. Radial play here is to beunderstood as meaning the distance 21 between the outside of the drillbit 11 and the inner wall of the bore 20.

The auger bit 11 extracts chips from the drillhole 20 and at the sametime creates a certain free space in the axial direction, i.e. along thelongitudinal axis 13 of the anchor 10, into which free space an adhesivecan be passed in through the upper opening 22 of the bore 20 once thedrill bit section 11 has been fully inserted. Particularly advantageousadhesives are epoxy resin-based adhesives and polyurethanes. Before theadhesive is introduced, the anchor 10 may preferably be rotated back byan eight to a half of a rotation in order to make it easier to pass inthe adhesive. Alternatively, it may be completely withdrawn, theadhesive poured in and the drill bit reinserted.

The drill bit according to the invention ensures axially correctfitting, allowing the anchor 10 to be well centered in the post 1. Theprior art according to DE 199 12 815 employing the spike results in adisplacement of the material of the post 1 and thus in stresses therein.The auger bit 10 produces a stress-free bore in wood and othercomparable materials.

The length of the anchor 10 depends on its field of application. For apost 1 having a diameter or cross-sectional dimensions of from 5 to 10centimeters, given a diameter of the auger bit 11 of between 6 and 10millimeters, a customary total length of the anchor may be between 10and 70 centimeters. Preferably, this length is divided in half betweenthe drill bit part 11 and the threaded rod part 12. Of course, it isalso possible for the threaded rod 12 or the auger bit 11 to be shorteror longer than the respective other section. It is also possible toprovide a connection element (not shown in the drawing) between theauger bit 11 and the threaded rod 12 (or a flat rod without a thread).This may be an outer hexagonal section or a disc which is orientedradially with respect to the longitudinal axis.

The anchor 10 according to this invention provides a simple, very secureanchor device which is able to be centered and which is correctlyaligned axially, this anchor device being driven into the postbeforehand within a storage area or during the production of said post.Alternatively, the post anchor may be set into the posts provided on abuilding site once on site.

Although the invention herein has been described with reference toparticular embodiments, it is to be understood that these embodimentsare merely illustrative of the principles and applications of thepresent invention. It is therefore to be understood that numerousmodifications may be made to the illustrative embodiments and that otherarrangements may be devised without departing from the spirit and scopeof the present invention as defined by the appended claims.

1. A method of introducing a post anchor into a post, the methodcomprising: providing a post and a post anchor, wherein the postcomprises an elongated block defined by a top surface, a bottom surface,at least one side surface between the top surface and the bottomsurface, and a longitudinal axis extending between the top surface andthe bottom surface, wherein the post anchor comprises a first sectionwhich includes a self-drilling drill bit section adapted to form a drillhole, the self-drilling drill bit section having an outer surface anddefining at least one helical groove, the helical groove extending intothe drill bit section and configured to aid in removal from the drillhole of chips or material cut during the drilling process, the drillhole having a surface and a second section for fastening to an element,wherein the diameter of the drill bit section is substantially the sameas the diameter of the surface of the drill hole, wherein the postanchor is flangeless, and wherein the drill bit section is arrangedwithin the post, the second section extending over the top surface ofand away from the post; forming a drillhole in the post with the drillbit section, wherein the drillhole extends from and through the topsurface and along the longitudinal axis, and wherein the outer surfaceof the drill bit section is substantially in contact with the surface ofthe drillhole; and introducing adhesive into the drillhole with thedrill bit section inserted so as to take up, by filling, any remainingradial play and axial play of the drill bit section in the drillhole,and wherein the helical groove is at least partially filled with anadhesive after the drill hole is formed.
 2. The method as claimed inclaim 1, wherein, prior to introducing the adhesive, the post anchor isrotated back by an eighth to a half of a rotation.
 3. The method asclaimed in claim 1, wherein the drill bit section is substantially incontact with the surface of the drill hole over substantially the lengthof the drillhole.
 4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein thediameter of the first section of the post anchor is substantially thesame as the diameter of the second section of the post anchor.